A press release notes that work on the 16-song album started as far back as 2006, with a 20-piece choir assembling to sing on opening cut "As Long As You Have Your Health." Since then, members of the band proper have come and gone, leaving founder Jason Michael MacIsaac the only remnant of the original lineup.

The LP apparently took shape over "endless sessions, [and] long hours of meticulously arranging instrumental passages" and is set up as a musical, reflecting work MacIsaac had undertook with Zuppa Theatre, as well as while composing scores from film and television. The record has a wartime theme to it, with character-driven tales sung by Stewart Legere, Melanie Stone and Jenn Grant, with assistance from Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche and the High Llamas' Sean O'Hagan.

Said to be inspired by Frank Sinatra's Watertown and Van Dyke Park's Song Cycle, the tracks on Health were culled from a selection of 30 songs. The final product apparently offers "lush new arrangements that revel in all the benefits of studio indulgence," including the harp-and-strings-assisted "Anna Karina, I Was Wrong" and smoothed-out pop jam "Perfect Tourists," which you can stream or download down below.

Health:

1. As Long As You Have Your Health
2. Anna Karina, I Was Wrong
3. Child of the Radio
4. God Bless Hazel
5. Call it a Day
6. I Should Be Sleeping
7. Perfect Tourists
8. Silence Your Drum
9. Crystal Clear
10. It Sounds Better Than It Sounds
11. Waiting for a Riverboat
12. Why Must You Hide Your Light?
13. Mes Craintes Oubliees
14. Someone Died Today at the Ice Capades
15. When You Go
16. Everything Is Magic

Get It

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